1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to walk-through gates, and more specifically, to walk-through gates having a plurality of gate sections that are horizontally extended to span openings of varying widths.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known to provide safety gates for doorways, stair wells or staircases in order to prevent the passage therethrough of small children, infants, or pets.
One common type of safety gate includes gate sections that can be expanded sufficiently to place friction pads into frictional engagement with the vertical surfaces or walls that define such an opening that is to be closed by the safety gate. Safety gates of this type have several disadvantages. First, the expanded gate sections may sometimes not be adjusted properly by the user, and thus may not provide a tight fit with the opening walls. In this case, the gate is not sturdily attached to the walls, and can be easily pushed over or otherwise defeated by a child or pet.
Also, many gates of this type do not work well when the two opposing walls are not truly vertical, a situation that is not uncommon. In this case, the upper or the lower portion of the gate may make better frictional contact with the walls than does the other gate portion, causing a situation in which the safety gate can be easily defeated.
Even if a safety gate of this type is properly adjusted to make very tight frictional contact with the two opposed walls, paint, wallpaper, or another finish on the two walls may be damaged by the friction pads. Lastly, it may be inconvenient to repeatedly disconnect and reconnect the compressed safety gate sections when passage through the gate is required.
Another class of safety gate typically includes the more permanent mounting of one side of the gate to one opposed wall, and some type of latching or locking of the other side of the gate to the opposite wall. Typically, the latch/lock may include a mechanism such as a hook and eye combination, or some other manually releasable mechanism. Gates of this type also have inherent drawbacks. First, the latch/lock mechanism are sometimes not adequately secure, and may sometimes be easily defeated by a child or pet. Second, these gates may not be easily removable from a doorway or staircase at those times during which it is not desirable to have the gate in place.
It is against this background, and with the desire to solve problems of the above type that are found in the prior art, that the present invention was developed.